I haven't seen his sites, but based on how he described them "whole swathe" I wouldn't guess the quality to be super high. One thing you could say for them was that they were unique.

Where putting in the effort to create original content falls flat on its face is when search engines chose to outrank aggregators (or later copies) over the original source. The issue has got so out of hand that Google has come right out & asked for help with it.

Some Google+ SEO factors now trump linking as prime algo ingredient. Google+ is already and clearly influencing rankings. I watched a presentation last night that definitely showed that rankings can occur from Google+ postings and photo's with no other means of support.

As Google+ grows - so will Google's understanding of how to use it as rankings signals.

We are not playing Google+ because we want too - we are playing Google+ because we have to.

I read that sorta half hoping he was wrong, but know he rarely is.

And then today Google hit me across the head with a 2x4, proving he was right again.

Comments

Aaron, many great points. After working in the publishing industry for 15 years until last year, this issue of Google ripping off content from true providers is not new. Google News often stole traffic from the newspaper websites I managed. They bought syndicated content from AP that OUR newspapers generated, then prioritized those news pages over the generator of the content, the newspaper.

To create a derivative statement of your blog post...."Google has aggregated content so deeply and well that they've become both the search engine and destination in many cases."

Google wants the public to create content that they can steal at their whim and repurpose however they like.

But that's not enough for them.

Even though their prime business model revolves around taking other people's stuff and selling ads around it, they now want the general public to use +1 to determine how it should all rank. Who needs an algo?

Google: You create it. You rank it. We'll get paid for it.

(don't worry. if you want visibility you can always buy advertising with them. just make sure you have a 7-figure spend or they might ban your account to make room for Fortune 500s)

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